A street-by-street map of the Olympic torch relay was published on Monday, along with proposed start times of when and where the Olympic flame will travel across Britain.

The London 2012 chairman, Lord Coe, said: "Today we bring the Olympic torch relay to life." Organisers hope the 8,000-mile relay, involving 8,000 torchbearers, will be the point when enthusiasm for the Games ignites across the country.

Many details are available online at www.london2012.com/olympictorchrelay. But full information on the two-day finale to the 70-day relay, which brings the Olympic flame to the lighting of the cauldron to start the Games, are being kept under wraps until closer to the start of the relay at Land's End on 19 May.

Around 7,000 people, many of whom are members of the public who have shown "community spirit, courage and sporting determination", have been named as torchbearers.

The youngest is 12 and each torchbearer will wear a white-and-gold uniform.

An average of 115 torchbearers a day will carry the flame during the nationwide relay, from 19 May to 27 July, to the opening ceremony in Stratford, east London.

Unusual ways have been found for some of them to complete their relay leg. A torchbearer will carry the flame on a chair lift at the Needles on the Isle of Wight, another will skate with it at the Nottingham Ice Centre and it will be rowed at Henley-on-Thames and on the River Bann in Coleraine, Northern Ireland.

High-flying activities await some torchbearers as the flame will abseil down the Dock Tower at Grimsby and swoop off the Tyne bridge between Newcastle and Gateshead on a zip wire.

Restoration work to the Flying Scotsman means that the Scots Guardsman train will now take the flame on its journey between York and Thirsk. It will also be taken on a skywalk at Croke Park as it visits Dublin on 6 June in its only stop outside of the UK.

After protests that marred the international leg of the torch relay before the Beijing Games, the International Olympic Committee ruled that future relays would be restricted to the host country.

The overall route has been designed to also take in cultural institutions such as the Turner Gallery in Margate and Cass Sculpture Foundation at Goodwood as well as many sporting stadia and racecourses.

Lord Coe said: "The flame symbolises the Olympic spirit and its journey around the UK will bring the excitement of the Games to our streets.

"Now the people know the route the Olympic flame will be carried along and the torchbearers for their community, they can start planning how they might celebrate."

The aim is the flame is brought to within 10 miles of 95% of the population. The torchbearers were chosen through the nomination schemes run by London 2012. Background checks are being run on all the nominees before the final lineup is confirmed.